Fatto opens in Melbourne

Author: Michael Harden

1:36PM, Nov 8, 2013

The restaurant at Melbourne's Hamer Hall Arts Centre formerly
known as Trocadero has been stripped back, made over, rejigged,
renamed and now reopened as the Italian-accented Fatto Bar &
Cantina. The carpets and glamorous interior and bar of the former
incarnation have been binned by design group Projects of
Imagination in favour of timber floors, acres of white tiles, red
neon signs, light boxes, butcher's paper on the tables and several
rather lovely zinc-topped bar areas. There's also a great feeling
of light and space, a sense of humour and a distinct lack of
formality.

Van Haandel Group general manager and Fatto executive chef
Anthony Musarra says that the food and the feel of the restaurant
"will have an Italian bent but we're not particularly trying to be
authentic. We want it to be theatrical and fun, a kind of 'let
yourself go' Italian joint that's a sum of its parts. We're not
doing anything fancy - it's energetic, confident and pacey".

The menu, which is available in the bar, dining room and out on
the spacious terrace, takes a classic Italian structure and
approach, using good ingredients simply cooked. It starts with the
antipasti-like appetisers (tuna crudo, garlic zeppole, salt-cod
arancini) and salumi before moving on to salads, pasta and secondi,
like grilled king prawns with buckwheat polenta or pork cotoletta
with fennel and apple slaw.

There's also a lengthy list of desserts that include the classic
crumbly sbrisolona (a pine nut and almond cake, served here with
stone fruit and cannoli cream) and the modern, playful caramel
panna cotta with salted popcorn.

"It's easy, vibrant, familiar food," says Musarra, "but that
kind of food is fraught with danger because simple Italian food is
actually really hard to do well. "[Head chef] Nick [Bennett,
ex-Cecconi's] really knows how to deliver the kind of food that you
crave. Along with giving people a good time and the lack of
pretension, I think we're going to be here for a long time."